Irish Wisdom (A day late)

So I'm a day late, but I hope everyone had a wonderful St. Patricks day weekend! Mine was spent watching my friend Blake get married and spend some long overdue time with high school friends. Super super blessed to have such quality people in my life.

Anyways, woke up to find a St. Patricks day card from my dad. He gave it to me because of an inside joke. Most likely if I tried to explain it, it wouldn't be funny. So let's just leave it at the fact that I have a cute and thoughtful daddy. He knows I love quotes so he looked up some famous Irish quotes and wrote them on the inside of the card. You know I have to share right?!

1. May your pockets be heavy and your heart be light. May good luck pursue you each morning and night.

2. A best friend is like a four leaf clover, hard to find and lucky to have.

3. A good laugh and a long sleep are the two best cures for anything. (One of my faves)

4. Who gossips with you, will gossip of you.

5. Everyone is nice till the cow gets in the garden.

6. It is often that a person's mouth broke his nose.

7. Firelight will not let you read fine stories but it's warm and you won't see dust on the floor.

8. Continual cheerfulness is a sign of wisdom.

9. Death leaves a heartache no one can heal. Love leaves a memory no one can steal.

10. If you're luck enough to be Irish, you're lucky enough!

Isn't he the best? Hopefully you enjoyed those as much as I did!

Paris!

It has been such a long time since I have posted anything! I kept telling myself that before my trip I would just wait and post when I got back. So here we are I'm back!
Back in July, my parents surprised with a trip to France for my graduation present. Ever since I got to study abroad in Italy a few years ago, I have been bitten by the travel bug and wanted to explore my parts of Europe and the world. They knew this and gave me this trip. I feel incredibly blessed and thankful for the opportunity! 

I feel that every time you get to travel somewhere, you get to learn about how another part of the world does things. You get to experience life from their perspective. Our first day there, I felt like I was completely transported to another planet. A planet where I only knew the words "hello, goodbye, thanks, thanks very much, and good evening." Needless to say, it is always remarkable to me how quickly people can adapt to new environments. 

There is just way too much to blog about and too many pictures to post so here is just a quick list of my favorite things that happened and realizations I had. 

1. French food is amazing. I don't think I have ever eaten such decadent food in my life. Every night we got to go to a new quaint little restaurant that only holds about 20 people. They only had a few dishes but everything was delicious!! 

2. I need to brush up on my French history. We got to see a lot of historical landmarks like the Arc de Trimophe, Versailles, etc. I learned a lot but I still wish I knew more! 

3. Stinky cheese tastes good! On my dad's bucket list for Paris he wanted to eat unpasteurized cheese. Well, a restaurant for dinner had some and the waiter assured us that "It is stinky, it is great"and it was! 

4. Art is everywhere. I thought France was going to have a hard time living up to all of the wonderful art I got to see in Italy but man was I wrong! The Louvre, Orsay, and l'orangerie all had amazing works of art. Art is one of those things that fills my soul up with Joy. Seeing precious and countless works of art from Van Gogh, Monet, Renoir, da Vinci, Picasso, Matisse, etc just filled me up with Joy.

(You wouldn't believe the trampling I had to do to get this picture!)

5. Everyone looks good in a beret. My dad wanted to get a souvenir from the trip so we went to a speciality hat shop. When my dad asked the sales person if he could pull off a beret, he told my dad "It's a beret, everyone looks good in a beret."

(Meet Marcel)

6. I love learning about different places of worship and the history of cathedrals. We got to go to Notre Dame and it was absolutely beautiful and incredible. We went on a Sunday to tour the tower and they were having mass on the inside. It gave me goosebumps knowing that people worshipped in that same spot 800 years ago.

(We lit a candle in memory of Tyler)

7. Shopping in Paris is great but it can be hard on your American self-esteem. Talk about sizing differences especially after eating rich meals and macarons. I still found some great buys! 

(Just their department store)

8. They really know how to  do some  interior decorating. 

(Versailles)

(Versailles)

(Louvre)

9. Paris has a lot of stairs. (sometimes 700-they numbered them) But the climb is worth it to gain a new perspective. Plus to appreciate what you just saw. 

10. And finally, it is wonderful to disconnect for a week from responsibilities, deadlines, projects, and stress and spend time with the ones you love. It was a week filled with good conversation, laughs, art, beauty, and everything I could have ever dreamt of! 

Thanks parents :) 

P.S.-Sorry for the mega long post! It was long overdue though!

P.P.S-Sorry for all the selfies....

Storytime

Y'all. We've almost made it through February. Things  have been going good for me right now.  I've been attempting to do more things that fill my soul up. Like cooking. I mean,  I made a chicken vegetable soup all by myself without a recipe. I felt like Julia Childs. (I've been told I have to credit Emily for that) I've been taking my pup to the park and seeing/hearing from friends. Oh, and I finally scheduled a time to take my NCE (National Counseling Exam). Praise the Lord. March 15th. NCE, prepare to be conquered.  I'm still stressed, but making my way towards a healthy balance.

I was texting my friend Marianne the other day and I just had to share what she told me. I was telling her what a process all of the post graduation stuff has been. I just had to share what she said.
"Yes! Such a process....and we want a story...and our story is actually the process to our life. So hard to let go control of the unknown." 
Man. I just love that.

We are all living a story. The struggles, triumphs, characters, settings, it is all a part of it. There will always be something happening. At least hopefully. Otherwise, the story may become a little boring. And who knows what will happen on the next page. So make today an exciting one.


Ps-I blogged about this a while back but if you want an awesome book about telling a personal story, read A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller. I think he also has a blog out now called http://storylineblog.com

Don't forget to have a good time.

Well, inspiration didn't hit for a while. I don't know what it's been about these past few weeks but they have been weird. It may be the February blues, but this month has been a struggle. Hearing from some of friends they agree too.

Struggling with worries. Job worries, future worries, friend worries, test worry. Worry worry worry. I too have been a victim of worry this month. Consumed with to-do lists, one task after another, giving so much of ourselves that at the end of the day we're exhausted. And then we get up and do it all over again.

Bad cycle my friends. And some things on our to-do lists are musts. We must do our job. We must run errands for things we need. Another must though? We must take care of our selves. We must give back to ourselves a little bit so we have a little bit to give back to others. I know I've talked about it before but especially during the February blues, it doesn't hurt to talk about it again. Start giving back to yourself a little bit. You not only deserve it, but you need it.

My mom told me this morning that I've been walking around with my shoulders up around my ears. Oops. So even if it is as simple as rolling the shoulders down and back. Taking deep breaths. Telling yourself positive messages. Petting your dog. Drinking hot tea. Or big things. Taking an hour to do yoga. Getting a massage. Dinner with friends. Taking a trip (Like Emily is currently doing. Jealous!) give back to yourself so that you can conquer that to-do list and not completely wear yourself out in the process!

Hopefully that wasn't too preachy. I'm going to step down off my soap box and work on my to-do list. Maybe my next post will be a little more light hearted.... Have a wonderful, fun weekend!

Quotes

So I have attempted to write three different posts and they just aren't coming out the way I want them to. I think my brain is turning into mush from all of the studying I've been doing for the NCE.

Usually a day after I post about my favorite quotes, inspiration hits. Hopefully that'll happen for me. But here's some of my favorite quotes I've found recently. Plus some ones that make me laugh thrown in. I'm always up for a good laugh.

The wide variety of those quotes will probably just give you a little glimpse into how scrambled my brain is lately! Have a wonderful week!

Growth.

I used to be shy. I mean really shy.  I'm pretty sure I didn't really talk all of kindergarten. I remember meeting Emily for the first time and all I could think was "Man, that girl talks a lot".  I was shy all through elementary but I was also blessed with a great group of friends that brought me out of my shell. In junior high, I felt like I had to start all over because my elementary school group got split up. I distinctly remember my parents in 7th grade encouraging me to make new friends and write down the names of people I talked to. After junior high, I decided that I wanted to work on my shyness.

It was a slow process. It started with little things like talking to new people in my class. Talking in groups. Trying new organizations. Then in graduate school,  it moved on to bigger things. Letting people get close to me. Letting my guard down. Loving myself. Accepting myself as an introvert but not letting that trait hold me back from things I wanted to do. My first blog post was similar to this. I've learned that it's still a process but my experiences will help me continue to grow.

Friday I made a presentation. It was more like a training. For some people, yea no big deal. Just a presentation. Well this introvert, lost some sleep over it. All I could think about was "How am I going to talk for two hours?" "Will they like my presentation?" "What if they ask too many tough questions?" "What if I'm not experienced enough?" "What if I'm not good enough?"

That's where what I've learned had to kick in. I needed to love myself. I had to remind myself that I was good enough, knew enough, and I could do it.

Guess what? I did it. Without my voice shaking.
It's the little things. But I counted it as a small victory and a step in my journey.

Staying in the Moment

I am hesitant about writing this post because I feel like I blog about it a lot. My whole intention for this blog though was to share struggles, triumphs, funny stories honestly and genuinely. That being said, I'm going to talk about being present minded.

I'm currently struggling with this immensely. I'm constantly catching myself thinking about the future. What it will be like, what I want for it to be like, what do I need to do to get there. On and on. It's ok being future minded to an extent. Everyone needs goals.  But having my mind entirely in the future is only causing anxiety. Creating stressful to-do lists, restless nights, and a fatigued mind and body.

 Worrying about things doesn't make them go away. It just makes me tired and less productive. Staying present is always something that I've struggled with. After I got home from work on Saturday, I took Chrissy and Sully over to the high school by my house. I took them off leash and threw the ball and let them run around. As I was sitting there in the gorgeous weather being entertained by my dogs, all I could think was, "I'm so happy this  is exactly where I am right now."

That's what being present is all about. Not letting the simple joys slip away because I'm worrying about what the next day will bring. Here's to staying in the moment and appreciating today.

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Matt 6:34 NIV